1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand-held sharpening devices for sharpening convergent-edge bladed implements such as knives, shears, cleavers, axes and hatchets. Although not limited to any particular bladed implement, the present sharpener is particularly adaptable for use with a variety of larger implements such as axes, hoes, garden shears and the like as well as camping tools which may have either double or single-ground cutting faces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of hand-held sharpening devices are available in the prior art which rely upon intersecting circular elements or intersecting straight blade elements, see for instance U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,824, which define a nip or V-shaped cavity through which the tool blade passes in order to be sharpened. These devices may be either of the type in which the blade is pulled through a stationary sharpening device or the type wherein the sharpener is drawn along the blade edge in order to effect the sharpening action. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,418,588 and 5,679,068 are examples of such hand-held sharpening devices that are primarily designed for pulling across or along the blade which is held stationary such as a lawn mower blade, shear blades or the like. Following are examples of sharpener devices of the type wherein the device is held stationary, such as being bench mounted or being hand held, while the knife or other bladed instrument is drawn through the nip or V-shaped cavity for sharpening.